Houston-area gymnastics coach competes on ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Published 11:31 pm, Thursday, September 15, 2016

Atascocita gymnastics coach and Dayton resident Barclay Stockett competed during the Oklahoma City qualifiers for the television show, “American Ninja Warrior.”

Atascocita gymnastics coach and Dayton resident Barclay Stockett competed during the Oklahoma City qualifiers for the television show, “American Ninja Warrior.”

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After Stockett competed, Gil asked her to be a part of his team, Iron Grip, for “Team Ninja Warrior” which is a television show on the Esquire Network. They recently wrapped up filming and the show will air in January 2017 featuring Stockett and her Iron Grip teammates. less

After Stockett competed, Gil asked her to be a part of his team, Iron Grip, for “Team Ninja Warrior” which is a television show on the Esquire Network. They recently wrapped up filming and the show will air ... more

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Atascocita gymnastics coach and Dayton resident Barclay Stockett competed during the Oklahoma City qualifiers for the television show, “American Ninja Warrior.”

Atascocita gymnastics coach and Dayton resident Barclay Stockett competed during the Oklahoma City qualifiers for the television show, “American Ninja Warrior.”

Houston-area gymnastics coach competes on ‘American Ninja Warrior’

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As a longtime gymnast, Barclay Stockett hadn’t heard about the competition, ‘American Ninja Warrior,’ until Kacy Catanzaro made history as the first woman to qualify for the final round in Season 6 in 2014.

After Catanzaro’s run on ANW, Stockett, a resident of Dayton and a gymnastics coach at The Rowland/Ballard School in Atascocita, received dozens of emails with the video of Catanzaro and requests from friends and family for her to try-out for the competition television show.

“It was in Season 6 when Catanzaro made history, but I was living and working as a volunteer in South Africa at that time so I couldn’t watch the videos that everyone was sending me until I returned back home,” Stockett said. “I hadn’t heard of ANW until that season and everyone kept telling me to try it because I am a gymnast, very strong and love to be challenged to dares. I watched the video of Catanzaro and I was amazed; I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

One afternoon while watching her younger cousins, they wanted to go to Iron Sports, a Ninja training gym started by ANW legend Sam Sann in the Willowbrook area, where she tried her hand at the Jumping Spider, an obstacle where the competitor will jump in between two walls and outstretch their arms and legs to move along the wall, which was like second nature to Stockett.

Nine months later, Stockett returned to Iron Sports with a friend where she tried to scale the 5-foot Warped Wall which was natural for her as well.

“I really enjoyed all of the different obstacles at Iron Sports and had so much fun so I thought, ‘this should be my sport,’” Stockett said.

Stockett began training and competing in local Ninja competitions, even beating out a few of the guy competitors in a few of the competitions.

“One of my favorite things about the Ninja competitions is that it is men and women competing against each other,” Stockett said. “In one of the competitions, I came in second to Ninja Daniel Gil, who was just one of two, who competed on the show, ANW, in Stage 3 this past season; he beat me on time.”

With all of this training, Stockett tried out to compete on this season of ANW during their Oklahoma City qualifiers but according to Stockett, didn’t perform her best and no woman made it past the third obstacle — the rolling logs.

“I’m 5 feet tall so the logs were very hard; I feel like I didn’t show what I was capable of during the qualifiers so I went to Las Vegas to test in a Ninja obstacle course in front of producers and casting directors where I did well,” Stockett said. “It was an awesome privilege and experience to show the producers and casting directors what I capable of and I hope to get onto the show this next year.”

After Stockett competed, Gil asked her to be a part of his team, Iron Grip, for “Team Ninja Warrior” which is a television show on the Esquire Network. They recently wrapped up filming and the show will air in January 2017 featuring Stockett and her Iron Grip teammates.

Up next for Stockett is to compete at the Texas State Fair in Dallas with fellow Ninjas, Gil, Joe Moravsky and Jesse LaBreck Oct. 22 and continue training and competing ahead of next year’s ANW 2017 competition.

“I feel honored to have the chance to compete; I give all of my props to God, my strength comes from him,” Stockett said.